


Only If For The Night

by TeyrianTimelord



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: F/M, Just Friendship, Navy Buddies, New Raptors, Owen and Blue are the real love story, Owen and OC bromance, PTSD, Panic Attacks, i wanted an excuse to make a female raptor trainer, references to Charlie's death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2015-06-18
Packaged: 2018-04-05 01:25:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4160361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeyrianTimelord/pseuds/TeyrianTimelord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years after the reopening of Jurassic World, Owen's nightmares and anxiety attacks still aren't getting better. However, things start to turn around when an old friend from the Navy accepts a job offer on the raptor research team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only If For The Night

**Author's Note:**

> Good gods, how long has it been since I've written an OC? 3, 4, years? 
> 
> Basically, I fell in love with Jurassic World, and I fell HARD. I wanted an excuse to come up with a female raptor trainer because lets face it, the idea of a tiny Jewish woman screaming at giant reptiles and/or Owen Grady is awesome. I'm getting more and more attached to Recker, so if people like her I might write more.

_The sky was bright and clear and blue. The brightest and clearest and bluest that he had ever seen. How dare it?! How dare it be so pure and beautiful while death and fire rained from above?! There was not a cloud in sight to mourn the planes as they fell like birds with broken wings, spiraling downward in a column of black smoke. There was no rain to bring solemnity and douse the flames, leaving the glass-like surface of the ocean to be the only relief. The world was crumbling, falling, burning, and yet the sky stayed unmoved. The sun just cruelly continued to shine, as if smiling at the despair and destruction. He didn’t move, couldn’t move. He was afraid that if he did the sky might whisk him off the deck and take him too; raise him up and then drop him down as it did to the pilots. What would he do anyway? There was nothing that could be done as what was left of the planes, what was left of the men, was swallowed up into the sea. The parachutes deployed too late left breathless in the bright and clear and blue sky._

Owen’s eyes snapped open as he gasped for air and kicked his way out from under the sheets. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe! Without waiting for his body to fully wake up or his eyes to adjust, he stumbled out of the bed and into the shower, hands fumbling in the dark until they finally managed to turn the knob. It was only when the cold water came rushing out and plastered his sweaty shirt to his body in a second freezing skin that he could finally take a deep breath again. After a few long inhales and exhales, Owen let his back connect with the back of the shower wall and slide down to the floor. He took a few moments to just relish in the frigid stream pounding steadily against his chest. It raised the goosebumps all over his arms, but it was also an indicator that he was alive. Or more accurately, not dying.

He jumped as the dark bathroom suddenly exploded in a burst of blinding light. Blinking a few times, Owen looked over to see a bathrobe swaddled Claire standing in the doorway and rubbing her eyes. The short hair she loved to keep sleek and styled was a frizzy red cloud around her head. Traces of mascara were running over her cheeks from where the back of her hand had been brushing the eyelid. Still, despite her sleep-shattered appearance, she looked concerned.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, walking toward him despite the spray of water that spurted outward without the shower curtain to contain it. “I felt you get out of bed like something was chasing you.”

Owen sighed and sat up enough to turn off the shower.

“It’s nothing, honey. Just a… bad dream. Go back to sleep,” he assured her.

Claire looked unconvinced, but didn’t push him to give any other answer. Giving him a ‘take care of yourself’ scolding glance, she gently kissed his cheek before yawning and going back into the bedroom. He sighed again and reached for a towel. He had been doing so well. Seven consecutive weeks without a panic attack, one of his best streaks yet. Granted, it was only a matter of time, he knew that. He also knew that he could never confide in Claire. He loved her, really. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. It wouldn’t be right to try dragging her into things she couldn’t understand.

***

 

Blue was rehabilitating well, and getting used to the younger raptors. It hadn’t come easily, but she was finally starting to get comfortable around India, Juliett, and Kilo. For a while, Owen was worried that she might never accept the new sisters and hunt alone for the rest of her life. He knew that raptors, like many family-oriented animals, could feel the pain of loss just as sharply as any human. Some creatures, man or creature, never recover. But he was thrilled to watch from the scaffolding as she interacted almost playfully with the newest members of her pack, every once in a while glancing up at him as if to say _are you happy now?_ He wished he could say in words she could understand, _Yes. I miss them too, but yes._

The girls were in the middle of playing four way tug-o-war with a deer carcass when they suddenly all stopped and hissed at the sound of an approaching car. Owen scratched his head as he saw the glimmer of the familiar Mercedes hood coming up over the crest of the hill. Since the re-opening, Claire was making an effort to take his advice on looking at the dinosaurs of animals rather than “numbers on a spreadsheet,” but she still didn’t come out into his sweltering, mosquito-infested, neck of the island often during the business day. The raptors eyed her carefully as she made her way to the top of the open topped observation tower, her high heels clicking loudly with every step.

“What brings you all the way out here? Not that I’m not happy to see you,” he inquired, removing his hat to wipe some sweat off his forehead.

“Good news,” Claire answered beamingly, handing him a laminate folder. “Corporate approved your request for an expanded velociraptor research program. They’re granting you funds for bigger facilities and the hiring of new consultants.”

Owen felt his face light up with excitement. They could finally build an expansion to the paddock for larger hunting zones and more live animals for them to chase! The new prospects of a larger home for his girls was ecstasy-inducing, but the second part of the grant was even more so. He could finally call in a third trainer to work with him and Barry. And he knew exactly who he wanted.

“I’ll have the plans on your desk for the new pen by next week. I can give you the contact for the consultant I want as soon as I get back to the trailer.”

“Give it to me at dinner,” Claire ordered and adjusted her sunglasses. “Seven o’clock. Please try to be on time; my sister and the boys will be there.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, darlin’,” he replied, planting a playful kiss on her lips.

She kissed him back, but then quickly pulled away with a coy smile.

“We’ll have to resume that later. I have a sponsorship meeting in 30 minutes and the last thing I need is to meet the GE representatives smelling like raptor and man sweat.”

***

Claire glanced over the file one more time as she and Owen climbed the stairs to the top of the control tower together. He had insisted that his new consultant be flown in by helicopter as soon as possible (which came after a very long and heated phone call between the two of them as to whether or not the job was going to be accepted and what it really entailed) to begin more advanced training with integrating Blue into the new pack and whipping the young ones into shape.

“Ms. Recker certainly has impressive credentials,” she said, looking over the resume and military files that Owen had given her.

“And a damn attitude to match,” Owen added. “Steph and I served on the same aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf for five years. There’s a reason they have her training military and police dogs now instead of the new recruits.”

It wasn’t long after his comment that Claire spotted the anticipated helicopter flying over the closest mountain peak, disrupting the air around them more violently as it approached and whipping her hair this way and that to the point where she could barely see as the chopper made its final decent onto the roof’s landing pad. She pushed a handful of hair out of her face just in time to catch the sight of the door opening to unload its only passenger, and Claire was glad she did.

Stephanie Recker was not the picture her file had painted. She expected Owen’s long-time, dog-training Navy buddy to be like the Amazon women who always left Claire in the dust during gym class in high school. She was expecting a drill sergeant in uniform or sexy body builder with perfect hair, but no. The woman who stepped out of the helicopter was half a foot shorter than Claire and petite enough that the businesswoman probably could have carried the veteran over her shoulders if she needed to. Tinted aviators covered most of her small face, but the pale skin of her forehead and chin were distinctly sunburnt while her dark hair was kept in a messy fishtail braid that slithered over the shoulder of her tank top like a snake. Claire raised an eyebrow in concern at Owen. Would the raptors even be able to tell the difference between this girl and food?!

Still, the minute she stepped onto the landing pad and threw her bag on the ground, Owen swept the woman up into a massive bear hug that swept her feet off the ground while they both laughed hysterically.

“It’s about time you got your ass down here, Steph!” he said, finally putting her back on the ground and giving her a pat on the shoulder that looked like it could have broken her collar bone.

“Well the last time you called I was in Tel Aviv working with their bomb sniffers, dumbass,” she retorted with a sarcastic snort and elbowing him in the ribs. “I’m glad you gave me a second chance though. I’m so sorry about your girls.”

Owen just shrugged. Two years had gone by, but Claire still couldn’t get him to talk about Delta, Charlie, or Echo without getting shaken up. Instead, he simply deflected by putting an arm around Recker’s shoulders and walking her back toward the edge of the landing pad with Claire.

“Allow me to introduce you to Claire Dearing: operations manager of Jurassic World and, as of last month, my future wife.

“A pleasure, ma’am,” Recker said pleasantly, taking Claire’s hand in a grip that was surprisingly tight. “And congratulations! As I’m sure Owen told you, we found out the hard way that we make better friends than fiancés.”

In a moment, Owen’s grin dropped from his face and Claire felt her heart skip a beat. Fiancés? _Fiancés?!_ As in once upon a time, engaged to be married?!

“Actually, he failed to mention that part,” Claire deadpanned, shooting him a glare she knew could shatter glass.

“I was going to bring it up at a better time,” Owen said nervously.

Claire leaned in to his ear so that only he could hear her sharp whisper.

“A better time? Like over dinner, or a drink, or that sex we _were_ going to have tonight?”

He was about to whisper something back, but instead she pulled back away and turned to Recker, who looked completely mortified.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s fine,” Claire interrupted, regaining her composure. “From everything Owen has told me about your experience, you’ll make a valuable member of the research team. Until we get an extra trailer set up for you closer to the paddock, my PA has arranged a room at the resort.”

“I appreciate the hospitality, ma’am. I’m just here to work, so you don’t have to put me up in anything fancy. I can crash on Owen’s couch if it’s any trouble.”

At least she seemed sincere.

“None at all, Ms. Recker. As long as you’re a consultant at Jurassic World, you will be given all the accommodations you need or want. Now if you’ll follow me, I’ll show you the control room.”

Claire ushered the woman in the door in front of her, giving her just enough time to shoot Owen one more _you’re lucky you don’t sleep on the couch for the rest of the year_ glare before following the new velociraptor trainer back down into the control tower.

***

“So just how much trouble are you in now, dumbass?”

Steph walked along the scaffolding where Owen was sitting on the edge of the catwalk, arms wrapped around the bar handrail while his legs dangled over the edge (very close to raptor reach, she noticed, if one of the girls decided to wake up from her nap and get cheeky). He sighed and rolled his head back to look up at her.

“Claire will get over it eventually, but for now it looks like I’m in the doghouse for a while.”

Steph rolled her eyes and dropped down into a cross-legged rest to sit at his side.

“It really didn’t cross you mind to tell your soon-to-be wife and boss about the two months that we were engaged?”

“I figured I just say something when it came up,” he answered with a shrug.

“So I’m assuming you also didn’t tell her about our three years being fuck buddies?”

He tossed her a glare, but it wasn’t really malicious.

“Are you trying to ruin my marriage before it starts? Because that’s what it feels like you’re trying to do right now.”

“Wasn’t it you who always introduced me to your civilian friends as…” she squared her shoulders and puffed out her chest to mimic his body posture. “’Recker, as in Home Recker, so keep an eye out!’”

For what even small effort he seemed to be exerting in trying not to laugh, he eventually broke down into a chuckle, making Steph smile and putting her at ease. She wasn’t sure what to expect when she boarded that chopper in New Mexico and flew all the way out to an island in the middle of nowhere that had been the highlight of international news two years prior. It hadn’t helped that Owen basically dropped off the face of the earth from her and the rest of their military friends when he moved off base in the first place. She tried not to take it personally, but making the transition from friends, to couple, to engaged, to casual sex partners, back to just friends was not as easy as it sounded, and sometimes she felt more than little afraid that maybe he was running from something rather than to it. But every once in a while she would pick up a Nat Geo or Science Monthly magazine in the doctor’s office and see pictures of him with his raptor pack, and was reminded to be less self-centered. Even through the glossy pages she could tell that he was happier with them in the depths of the jungle than he ever was on a navy aircraft carrier. Not that she could blame him for wanting to get away. Almost everyone wanted to get away after the airstrikes…

“So, you gonna introduce me to your friends?” she asked, breaking the soft silence that had fallen between them.

This brought an excited grin that stretched across his whole face.

“Lazy lizards need to wake up anyway,” he said and produced a metal whistle from his vest pocket, not unlike the one Steph used for dogs.

They both rose to their feet as he filled the air with a high pitched squeal that gave the air a ringing buzz only an animal trainer could find pleasant. In less time than it took her to adjust her sunglasses, the glade clearing below them in the paddock was suddenly filled with flashes of browns and yellows and greens and blues. A cacophony of hisses and shrieks ricocheted around the concrete walls to encompass the whole enclosure. After a series of stretches and scratches, the four velociraptors all stilled and looked up to Owen for more direction.

“The orange one is India. Watch out for her teeth, she’s still in the habit of love nips. Don’t mean any harm, but she’ll take off a hand if you aren’t careful. Emerald green is Juliett, little lady that she is gets scared of her own shadow sometime, but loves to chase laser pointers. Kilo is brown with yellow stripes. She can be the biggest pain in the ass, but once the others remind her of her place in the pack she settles down.”

He went down the list like a proud rather introducing his children, but paused for a moment, and his face beamed with a light that Steph had never seen before.

“And then that’s my girl Blue, pack beta. She’s… she’s something special.”

Steph gazed on in wonder, not so much at the raptors themselves, but the way they looked at Owen and the way he looked at them. Especially growing up with a zookeeper mother, she spent almost her whole life observing some of the most profound bonding between people and animals. She had seen man look into the eyes of beast to tame it, only for beast to be the one to tame man. Her career was to build the foundations that lasted between a dog and its handler, laying the groundwork for relationships that would could, and would, only end in death. She had been to funerals of military men who left their companions behind and vice versa, and looked into the eyes of both creatures who shared something much stronger than anyone other than themselves could ever understand. Blue and Owen had the same intense gaze, full of more love and devotion than she knew he could ever have for another human being. Steph had always believed in soulmates, but that only animals had the real capacity to make such connections, and only sometimes people were blessed enough to be a part of that pair. She could see that now in the two of them. For Steph, it was the most profound thing in the world to observe.

“Incredible,” she breathed. “Absolutely incredible.”

“Better get used to it, Steph. If you’re part of the crew now, me, Barry, and these girls are going to be your best friends for a long time,” he said with a chuckle.

Yes. Steph could definitely get used to this.

***

_The sky was bright and clear and blue. The brightest and clearest and bluest that he had ever seen. How dare it?! How dare it be so pure and beautiful while death and fire rained from above?! There was not a cloud in sight to mourn the planes as they fell like birds with broken wings, spiraling downward in a column of black smoke…_

_But wait, no, it wasn’t right. The sky didn’t stay bright and clear and blue. It was suddenly invaded and consumed by all-encompassing night. The vast expanse of boiling cloudlessness plunged into black, as if the whole world had gone blind. The air was no longer thin and still, but heavy and thick, and he could feel it filling his lungs like water, like he was drowning. The sky had gone dark, but the fire and the raining planes remained. Streaks of burning reds and yellows toppled from the void above leaving bright tails behind them and bursting into fireballs as they collided with the earth. But wait, no, that wasn’t right. They weren’t planes at all. They were explosives. And suddenly there were her amber eyes, staring at him, pleading with him. “What are they doing to us, Owen? What are you letting them do to us, Owen? Why did you let them do this to us, Owen?” He wanted to scream that he was sorry for everything, but then one of the explosives, coming down from out of the black like a falling star, landed at her back and swallowed her whole into a cloud of flame. He could hear her sisters shrieking, “Charlie, come back! Charlie come back! Come back! Come back! Make her come back, Owen!” But he couldn’t make her come back, just like he couldn’t make the men from the planes come back._

_“Why did you let them do this to us, Owen?”_

He couldn’t breathe. His sleeping bag felt less like the soft cocoon it had been before he fell asleep and more like a trap set to catch a wild animal. He kicked and struggled and clawed at the bag until finally the zipper gave way and let him escape. His chest suddenly constricted with pain as he realized that he wasn’t in Claire’s apartment back on the main center of the island, and there was no cold shower in which for him to find solace. Instead he was surrounded only by the sound of humming bugs and Barry’s sleeping. He panicked and felt his hands begin to cramp. His lungs ached more and more as he desperately looked for something, anything, cold to soothe his rapidly deteriorating nerves. He kept a supply of damp towels stored in his fridge, but the trailer was half a mile away and there was no way he could rely on his legs to get him that far. Even in the dark, he could see his vision starting to blur into haziness.

“Hey! Grady, don’t give me that shit!”

Owen suddenly felt two sweaty but cool hands sternly grip each side of his face, fingers taking a tangled hold in his hair.

“Grady, you look at me and you breathe, damn it! Do you hear me? I said, breathe!”

As his sight gradually came back into focus, he could make out the pale white of Steph’s face in the dim moonlight. It was not kind of mild like it tended to be when they usually talked. Instead it was hard and furiously dead serious, staring him down as if he was one of her German Shepherds or Rottweilers. His shaking hands found holds on her shoulders, but that did not reduce the authoritarian stone countenance.

“You breathe on my count, understand? One… Two… One… Two…”

Though it hurt the first few times, and his inhales were shaky and shallow at best, after a few moments, Owen’s breathing was in sync with Steph’s orders, and slowly the pain in his chest and hands subsided. Fifteen minutes crept by, but he finally felt human again and let out a deep sigh, dropping his head against the curve of her shoulder and neck. He felt her body unwind beneath him, and her small arms wrapped lightly around his waist.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do that,” she murmured in his ear, hands making lazy circles around his back. “Can’t say I’ve missed it too much.”

Owen took in a few more breaths. It would be a lie to say that the way she could talk him down from an attack hadn’t been one of the reasons he had asked her to marry him. She was coarse, rough you could say, but effective nonetheless. Far too many times on the ship and in the house they shared on base, he had woken her up in the middle of the night with his terrified bolts or empty gasps. It was a bit selfish, really, but he had loved her for it anyway. Loved her now for it too, even if not in the same way. No matter what happened between them then or now, she made him feel safer than any person on earth ever could.

He replied in a shallow exhale, “No, I guess not… but I missed you.”

Steph gave a small smile and kissed his forehead.

“I missed you too, dumbass. Now get some sleep. It’s Kilo’s turn for scent training tomorrow and I need you coherent in case she tries to take off my leg again like she did last week.”

He nodded in agreement, but he didn’t let her go. She didn’t object when he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, tucking her small body to his chest in the familiar position they used to always take. He needed to know she was there for him, and she needed to know he trusted her, putting them into a symbiotic balance, even if the balance had swayed in weight over time. Still, for everything else, things seemed back in place. Blue and the girls were sleeping soundly, he and Claire were happy, and the friend who could quiet his nightmares was finally back in his arms. Even only if for the night.


End file.
